Dallas private eye Bat Garrett is called in to investigate a snowboarder who crashed in the “Mind Games”, a made-for-TV spectacular being held at Toltec Mountain Ski Area in New Mexico. What looks like just a routine accident–like the many other accidents that are always happening on the slopes–becomes more suspicious when the snowboarder is found dead in her hotel room. Soon, there’s another death, and then another. Is someone stalking the “Mind Games”? Can Bat–and his wife, Jody, who is working the case undercover–unravel the mystery before the bodies pile up higher than the snow?

Rising star Sonya Kiel suddenly drops off the grid and lands on the doorstep of her cousin Lynette, who lives in western Oklahoma. Telling herself she’s just slumming and slowing down, Sonya finds herself enjoying the bucolic lifestyle … and Lynette’s best friend, a youth minister named Andy Brockton. Her life begins to be pulled in two directions as part of her desires to return to the bright lights and the silver screen, but another (and previously unknown part) wants to leave it all and follow Andy onto the mission field. Her dilemma becomes, literally, a life and death decision for her family.

What if history didn’t happen that way the first time? Reclusive Soviet scientist Garison Fitch’s experiment with interdimensional travel landed him in 1744. There he met and fell in love with Sarah, a beautiful but outcast young woman. They married and had three children and he decided to stay in the past. When he tried to rid himself of his time machine by sending it into the future, it took him with it. Now, he finds himself back in the twenty-first century where a woman (Heather) he has never met claims to be his wife and the country he grew up in is gone, replaced by something called “The United States of America”. Should he live in this new world, or try to return the world to “normal”? As he becomes convinced he can’t return to Sarah, he’s not really sure if he can live in this new world he created, either.

Edward Garrett finds himself washed up on the shore of a foreign land, shipwrecked! As he tries to find his way home, he becomes involved with The People, a friendly—but reserved—people who live along the coast and are being harassed by brigands from the mountains known as the Brazee. Thinking that Marcus has brought him here for just this reason, Edward agrees to lead a posse into the mountains to try and retrieve four teenage girls who were captured by the Brazee. Edward’s greatest desire is to leave, to go find his beloved Marianne and let her know he didn’t die in the great battle by the river. In the process of freeing the girls, however, he is shot and lands in a Brazee prison. There, he is forced into gladiatorial games where the only way to freedom … is death. A futuristic fantasy in the tradition of Louis L’Amour. On Sale Now!

Joe Whitcomb used to be a preacher. Now he hates God for killing his wife and daughter and calls himself a “recovering Christian”. Ellen Leads used to be a promising student until her whole life was derailed by drink and now calls herself a “recovering alcoholic”. Sometimes, running from your problems is easier if there’s someone running with you.

An EMP knocks out all the power in North America. As people are scrambling to get generators (or anything else) running, they begin to hear rumors. Nuclear war. Chaos. What about the President? Is she alive or did she die in the disaster?

Mary Orsen discovers that her ability to travel through time was not affected by the EMP. She has the power and the ability to go back in time and prevent the war. But she also knows that she’ll only make things worse if she doesn’t go back and change what really started it. Was it the EMP, or had it actually begun before that?

Mary consults with men who have traveled through time before: Bat Garrett and Garison Fitch. They are old now and can, however, only give advice. If the world is going to be saved, there can only be one TimeKeeper.

Bat Garrett happens to be on hand when the Native Sun Trading Post blows up. Two bodies are found in the rubble, presumed to be the owners of the trading post. But Jody has seen them before. Jody knows that, if there’s anyone in the world with motive to want the two shop-owners dead … it’s her.

When Bat Garrett wakes up one morning with the wrong wife, he knows something is wrong. Jody’s dead. His grandson Edward is dead. A young woman named Marianne went to the future by herself. Everything is wrong and Bat is the only person who remembers how things used to be, when they were right. But… Read more »

Burt Cottage, tramp freighter pilot somewhere in the South Pacific, connects with Smitty, a larcenous rogue (though that may be putting too fine a point on it) for adventure and treasure-seeking. Along the way, they are attacked by pirates, trapped by a volcano, and sent on a high-paying, high-risk mission by the mysterious Mrs. Li.

Laying in bed with a broken leg, Jody Anderson recalls the events that have brought her to that moment. Adolescent gymnast … college cheerleader … flute player in the band … Just how did all this land her in a hospital, her medical bills paid by the Treasury Department? How did she get from a farm in rural, northern Arkansas to the world of being a domestic spy, bullets flying, bones breaking, and romance?

Endorsements

The old trope says there’s no such thing as a dumb question, but obviously that’s not true. Questions like the above and “Will government intervention actually lower the cost of college (or anything)?” are patently stupid questions. Yet, we ask them often, mainly in the hopes of starting an argument. I mean, that has to… Read more »